This invention relates to a customs seal for a freight container door.
As is well known, a freight container usually has two access doors hingedly mounted at one end of the container via respective sets of hinges and mounting brackets which connect one edge of each door to a respective container door post.
Usually, latching elements and locking bars are provided to maintain the doors in the closed position.
For almost fifty years, goods have been moved around the world in freight or shipping containers. The dimensions of such containers have been established and controlled by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). Similarly, standards of locking and sealing the containers against illegal entry, or insertion of contraband after the container has been closed by the shipper, have long been established by Transport International Routiers (TIR).
The doors of such containers have always been the most vulnerable area for illegal entry into the cargo space. Until recently, it was assumed that the current practice of using two doors, commonly of steel construction, hingedly mounted to the vertical posts of the container at several positions (with the hinge pivot pins welded in position during construction so as to render them impossible to remove without significant mechanical damage) would be a satisfactory safeguard, as any damage done would be obvious at customs inspection.
To secure the doors in the locked position, one or two locking bars on each door are typically welded or bolted, each locking barbeing fitted with a cam at each end which engages with a keeper which is welded to the horizontal members at the top and bottom of the frame of the container. The locking bar is pivotally mounted, and a handle is provided by means of which the cams can be rotated from the open to the locked position. In the locked position, a handle latch is provided whereby the handle can be retained in position. Holes are provided in the latch and the handle, which are in line when the door is locked, and which allows the insertion of a proprietory customs seal.
Again, it has been assumed that container doors built and sealed in such a manner could not be opened without either breaking the seals, or doing sufficient mechanical damage that illegal entry would be obvious on inspection.
It has also been accepted practice to fit only one customs seal in the handle of the bar nearest to the centre of the container, on the right hand door, as this door is usually designed to overlap the left-hand door and must be opened first.
However, recently a major problem has arisen with current designs of containers. With the availability of high powered battery-operated hacksaws, and sophisticated adhesives commonly known as “liquid metal”, it has become relatively easy to cut through the cams of the locking bar which has the customs seal, such cutting action being carried out adjacent to the mounting bracket. It is then possible to open the doors by actuating the handles of the locking bars that have not been sealed, leaving the customs seal intact.
Upon subsequent closing of the doors, when illegal entry into the container has taken place, a small amount of liquid metal can be applied to the saw cut, and the joint is re-made, leaving the container apparently unaltered, unless a detailed inspection is carried out.
The present invention seeks to address this problem in a simple and unique manner.